MOSCOW, December 18 (R-Sport) – Football agents will receive a maximum of 10 percent of a transfer fee, or 10 percent of the player’s salary, under new rules agreed Wednesday by the Russian Football Union.
All professional clubs will be required to include agent fees in their annual reports as part of reforms to the system for transferring players between teams. Current laws place no ceiling on agents' fees.
The RFU’s legal director Denis Rogachyov said that agents would also be barred from having any involvement in contract extensions, which would be left for players and clubs to negotiate without third parties.
Agents often receive fees from both their clients and the clubs when players change teams midway through a contract, a controversial practice known as double representation.
In 2009, the RFU’s then president Vitaly Mutko, who is now sports minister, said that the practice had effectively helped to bankrupt several clubs including second division side Zvezda Irkutsk.
"We considered outlawing contracts with agents, but in the end we went with limits. Ten percent from the transfer or 10 percent from the player's salary," said Rogachyov.
Double representation is also thought to encourage corruption, with club officials quietly taking a certain percentage of the agent's artificially high fee.
Many clubs in Russia are at least in part funded by the taxpayer.
